The pair wanted to set a goal to help motivate the students, so they decided to set the record for an origami butterfly in honor of Webster Hill's courtyard butterfly garden.

On March 11, Annie Lopez-Lopez, 10, and Amy Ni, 11, folded a massive piece of paper into a butterfly measuring 4.36 by 3.29 meters. The butterfly that set the previous record measured only 2 meters at its widest point.

The making of the butterfly was filmed in the school's gym with witnesses that included origami experts Dori Melowicz and Julie Phillipps, patent agent Dan Gilmour, civil engineer Julie Viera and a notary public. Filming and careful documentation of the procedure by official observers was a requirement for consideration by Guinness.

Town employees David Flynn, a certified engineering technician, and Peter Woelk, a licensed land surveyor, measured the butterfly with a laser-generated survey measurement tool that's accurate to a millimeter.

"To actually get the official word just takes a lot of waiting," said Shahverdian. "It's very exciting."

The school received a certificate notifying them that the butterfly had set the world record.

Shahverdian said they'll be working to get the butterfly mounted and displayed somewhere in the school.

The students and teachers, "deserve a tremendous amount of credit for their perseverance, problem-solving ability, teamwork and critical thinking," said Principal Jeff Wallowitz. "We celebrate this success as an entire school community."